Hey, neither did I.
(totally buying it when I can though)

I'll bite my tongue on the piracy and self-important entitlement mentality rant.

Lots of people are try-before-you-buy pirates, or just try-what-you-wouldn't-buy ones. Download stuff to see if it's worth their money, then if so, buy it. Especially people like myself, who simply don't have the money to spend on something they "might like."

Not all piracy is deducting a sale from the people who deserve money; I've never pirated anything I was planning on buying, but I've absolutely bought stuff I'd pirated beforehand.

Playing the game to completion is hardly "try before you buy".

Then waiting for a 'sale on steam' until you buy it, is a pretty douche move.

"Yeah, I illegally obtained, played, and completed this game, and I like enough to buy it, but they don't deserve full price. I'll wait til it's like 8 bucks."

Way to show your fucking support.

I'm just gonna try this sandwich, hell, I'll even finish it off. It was great, but I'm not gonna pay. Hell, I'm not even gonna tip. Tell ya what though, I'll come back and buy a sandwich from you when you're selling them for half price (still won't tip you though).

I think you're forgetting something here, son...

The developers will get their cut regardless - its the stores that sell them (both online and in town) that suffer a cut in profits by selling games cheaper/in sales.

So with that in mind...

And the stores that sell them don't deserve the money 'cause you wanted to be a fag and pirate the shit to play it completely beforehand?

Also, that makes my little sandwich rant even MORE valid, 'cause, hey, the companies that supply the ingredients already got their cut, but the dude that sells it to you, well, hey, fuck that guy.

You've obviously not shopped at GAME...

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare on PS3?

Pre-owned?

That's £34.99 please...

Also, if you're going for the sandwich analogy, then its more like:

>try a sandwich without paying for it
>enjoy the shit out of it
>give the guy who put it together the money, because you enjoyed it so much

I'd totally back you up if he just yarr'd it to play it then never bought it, but it takes a whole lot of respect for a developer to pirate their game, play it to 100% completion, and THEN buy it purely because its worth buying.

He coulda told 'em to do one, but instead he's giving them the money.

The devs haven't lost anything. Someone got to play their game, and they got their money, just not the usual way around.

Pirates who take without giving can fuck right off however.

Don't wanna pay that much for a used game? Try the internet or: Tough shit.

The devs get paid regardless.

You're not fucking over the sandwich maker, you're fucking over the sandwich shop. Enough people fuck over the sandwich shop, and that sandwich shop will make cuts that could include canning that sandwich maker.

It doesn't matter WHO you're fucking over, you're still fucking SOMEONE over, and you deserve to be called out on it. You aren't the customer of the developer, you're the customer of the entity that sells that product to you.

The way to fuck over places like Gamestop/GAME is to shop somewhere else, not be a shitsack who thinks they should get something for nothing until you finally feel like getting around to picking it up on the cheap to do nothing more than pat yourself on the back for doing the 'right' thing.

What Al is doing...
>Pirate the game
>Enjoy it
>Buy it
>Everybody wins

What you're complaining about...
>Pirate the game
>Enjoy it
>Tell the dev/shop to swivel
>Pirate wins, dev/shop suffers

Explain to me exactly how Al's actions are fucking someone over, because far as I can tell, doing things in that order is EXACTLY THE SAME as borring the game from a friend or renting it from a store, in that SOMEONE made the original purchase, another person has got to play it as a result of that purchase, then they have gone on to buy their own copy.

If Al's actions are wrong, then rentals are wrong and borrowing from a friend is wrong.

One copy purchased distributed in endless copies over the internet is not the same as borrowing it from a friend, unless that download can only be played when NO OTHER PERSON WHO PIRATED THE GAME is currently playing, nor can the original owner be playing.

Renting: 1 copy purchased and leased out by the owner of that copy to one person at a time.

Then specifically waiting until it is on sale/price drops until dishing out your cash.

Cutting into profits of distributor.

Having somebody else's cake, eating it too, and then paying them half price for it later. Had he not mentioned he was waiting for a sale/price drop, I probably wouldn't have even made the piracy comment, but just because you don't want to pay the price for the product is not a valid justification for illegally obtaining the product prior to payment, and then waiting for a price drop to pay.

The way he's doing it is EXACTLY like stealing a winter coat from a store, and then going back in July and paying the price of the coat when it's on clearance.

The company that made the coat got paid anyway. The store that was selling the coat got fucked.

If he were to borrow the winter coat from a friend, that's fine, he's borrowing it. 1 coat that was paid for has changed ownership, not endlessly duplicated it's 'ownership' digitally.

Had he 'rented' the coat, the company that made the coat got paid, and the place renting it out got paid. Everyone's a winner.

His way means that he's a winner, and the distributor gets fucked out of the profit they SHOULD have had at the time he illegally got the game.

I still don't get it...

Is renting a new game and then waiting for a sale to buy it cheaper wrong?

Is borring a new game from a friend then waiting for a sale to buy it cheaper wrong?

Because thats effectively what he's doing. In fact thats EXACTLY what he's doing.

Piracy = obtaining a copy of something for very little cost/nothing, in which the developer/stores see nothing in terms of profit, or only profit from the original sale.

So... renting/borrowing = piracy?

I think you want to be campaigning against those folk who pirate games, and to those who pirate and then don't give anything back. Al's a naughty boy for pirating, no argument there, but his actions following this has exactly the same outcome as borrowing/renting a game before buying it.

The issue rises with the one copy issue. It ISN'T the same as renting or borrowing, because in that situation, there is only 1 copy available. 1 person is playing that copy at any given moment. Only one person.

Piracy is limitless numbers of people playing the same 1 copy at the same time.

Borrowing = Loss of 1 sale (in Al's case, temporarily, at which case you'll only make half the profit you would originally anyway) per person it is lent to, however it isn't a copy of the original.

Product that exists that was never sold? Zero

Renting = Loss of 0 sales (they weren't gonna buy it anyway which is why they're renting it). Game was sold to rental company. Rental company makes money from you renting game.

Product that exists that was never sold? Zero.

Piracy = Loss of sales potentially equal to the number of illegal copies. 1 sale.

Product that exists that was never sold? Every single downloaded copy.


The pirated copies have no ownership. It is not you borrowing it from somebody, nor is there anyone you are renting it from. Borrowing is a temporary transfer of ownership. Renting is a paid for timed transfer of ownership. Pirating has no transfer of ownership of the original source. THAT is where my issue lies.

What's it called when you take something you don't own?

Theft.

These are why they have demos and why people review games. So you can try it or read about it before you buy.

Okay, I fully understand where you're coming from here, but you're lumping Al in with everyone else. Theres a big difference.

Al pirates a game - copies sold: 1, copies owned: 2
Al then buys the game - copies sold: 2, copies owned: 2

HOWEVER...

Millions pirate a game - copies sold: 1, copies owned: millions

We're talking ONE PERSON here. Screw everyone else pirating and not buying it. They're fuckers anyway. This is one person. Al.

So again...

Man buys game. 1 sold, 1 owned, 0 copied.
Man torrents game, Al and 99,999 others download. 1 sold, 1 owned, 100,000 copied.

Now, if the tale stopped RIGHT HERE, then you would have my sword, my axe, my bow, etc etc, and I'd be calling Al a dirty rotten scoundrel myself. But it doesn't. It goes on.

Al then buys game because he enjoyed it. 2 sold, 2 owned, 99,999 copied.

See? See right there? Al turns from naughty pirate into sensible customer and happy consumer. He's got a bought and paid for game, and the developers/stores get their cuts. Whether he pays half price or a quarter of the price, whatever. You telling me YOU never bought in a sale? Why, wouldn't that make you as much of a cad and a knave as Al? Of course not. The makers get their cut, and the stores get what they're asking for it, so everything's gravy.

I totally understand your point, I really do. But you're stopping short of the full story here...

You can't trust reviewers, not fully, cause you can never account for taste. You could write up a review about how FFX-2 is the single greatest game that ever was, is, or will be, and how companies should just stop fucking trying now because damn son.
And then I could buy it, trusting you, play it, and hate it for the mediocre game it is. In my opinion. Because different opinions exist. Those are a thing.

As for demos, be straight with me, how many games have demos available? Judging from what I've seen, and bear in mind I own no consoles aside from a Wii and most of my gaming is(was ;_;) done on a PC, so my views are skewed here, but I'd say an honest estimate is what, less than .5%? Deus Ex doesn't have a demo. The only time I have $20 lying around is when I get money for Christmas, my birthday, or when my ma gets her tax return, and I'll be fucked if I'm gonna spend my thrice-a-year money on a chance. Sure I've heard Deus Ex was good. What if I didn't think so? What if I disagreed with the common opinion, like I did for, say, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? Heard that game was the fucking tits from everywhere I read a review. Rented it. Hated it.

So what did I do with Deus Ex? Downloaded the shit out of it. Got to the end of the first level, and was just like "holy shit, this is
yes
this is yes."
And so I bought it, spending some of my very rare money on it. Cause it deserved to be bought.
My demo was illegal, sure, but for all intents and purposes, that's what it was. I tried a game, decided it was worth my money, spent money on it.

I forgot my point here. But yeah pirates = faggots, pirates who buy a game they like = faggots with a nice sense of morals.